Solar-powered Ferris wheel among HemisFair Park ideas

Politicians and citizens gather at the Sunset Station Depot on Wednesday night to discuss HemisFair Park.

Wednesday night, toward the end of the HemisFair Park public workshop, spokespersons from each of the two dozen or so roundtables said into a microphone a few of the ideas their group had generated.

One poneytailed gentleman prefaced his group’s suggestion by recalling “Los Voladores de Papantla” (The Flying Indians) who performed daily at HemisFair ’68. You may remember them — they were the Mexican acrobats who would spin around a tall pole while dangling from ropes.

“We felt that the defiance of gravity and a symbol of the cyclical nature of the universe would be a solar-powered Ferris wheel,” the man said to large applause.

And I, too, applauded. To my surprise, it was one of the few concrete ideas I heard last night inside Sunset Station’s cavernous depot — the public’s first opportunity to offer input into the HemisFair Park planning process.

Then it dawned on me: few regular folk have concrete plans for the park. I sure don’t have any. Everyone had a general idea of what they’d like — restaurants, more park space, residential — but nothing specific. And understandably so. It’s complicated. For example, how does one connect HemisFair Park to the east side while the Institute of Texan Cultures and Interstate 37 act as dividers? For that matter, how do you connect the park to the River Walk with the convention center there. One suggestion: extend the River Walk into the park. What about the current structures — the old homes or the John Wood Federal Courthouse? During HemisFair, the courthouse was a pavilion, and so it’s part of our downtown heritage. But before HemisFair there were homes there, so which heritage to you honor?

For me, I was most surprised by the disapproval of adding housing, something I heard more than once. Every local pundit will tell you downtown needs more housing, that it’s the fastest way to balance the tourist and local populations. And so its knee-jerky for city leaders to view HemisFair Park as a semi-clean slate on which to add units. I heard from several people who disagree.

“I think it should be more like entertainment, not housing,” said Emma Guerrero Arzola, who sold tickets at the front gate all six months of HemisFair. Her and her husband, Jose, agreed that there is plenty of space to build housing around the park, like what the San Antonio Housing Authority did with Victoria Commons on the other side of Durango Boulevard. “We need a large park. There’s nothing out here except Brackenridge Park,” Jose Arzola said.

Longtime Lavaca resident Jim Rodriguez is OK with housing as long as its upscale. For 50 years, he lived two blocks from the Victoria Courts. Before SAHA built the Victoria Commons mixed-income residential cluster, the corner of Durango and I-37 was where the courts were located.

“Once the courts went down, the quality of life (in Lavaca) just went up,” Rodriguez said.

Annette Crawford, a volunteer at Villa Finale, said the old homes should return to their original function. “I would like to see something done with the old houses at HemisFair,” Crawford said. “I think it would be wonderful if people could actually live there. I don’t think they should be moved for convenience sake. They should keep them there the way they were meant to be.”

Last night, after an open house, the workshop itself began with small speeches from various higher-ups on the HemisFair Park redevelopment food chain. Mayor Julián Castro was poignant as always — “If we get it right. . . when we walk it, when we experience it, and when live it, we will feel San Antonian” — but it was Bill Fain, the Fain in Johnson Fain, the L.A.-based urban planning firm leading the process, who reminded folks exactly where they are.

“The objective tonight is to hear from you, to hear from the community,” Fain said. “We have no preconceived ideas. There’s no plan. We’re in a research phase right now.”

With that, people discussed with their roundtable mates two key questions: “What makes San Antonio uniquely San Antonio?” and “What would you like to see happen in HemisFair Park?”

I sat with Group 11. In the group was Lavaca resident Rodriguez; Lyn (who asked her last name not be used), a new Lavaca resident; and Jonathan Gertman, a King William resident.

The Pear, and even Market Square, were sources of inspiration for Group 11. Rodriguez would like to see a strong restaurant component to the park, citing the way Mi Tierra and La Margarita anchor Market Square. Lyn suggested HemisFair Park “should be a place where people can stroll through,” the way the Pearl is strollable.

Gertman stressed authenticity, the idea that the best tourist destinations are the ones with a neighborhood feel. “You don’t come back to a tourist attraction. You come back to a great city,” he said.

A slow-traffic, walkable neighborhood with some retail was one idea group members batted around. Speaking of transportation within the park, Lyn reminded everyone of HemisFair’s monorail, which everyone agree would make for a nice comeback.

After group discussions, a representative from each group shared with the whole. Among those ideas:

• “We should have a beautiful outdoor performance space.”

• “It should be a residential, green, social, cultural, educational and accessible oasis for everybody.”

• “A park with a water feature. A park that is lush that provides passive recreation and contains a place for art like an amphitheater.”

Arneson River Theatre is just across the street, I’m just saying. (This is Olivo talking)

• “It was important to the group that the focus was not on tourists but on locals, that if we like it, then the rest of the world will like it, too.”

Amen!

• “It should be free. Every part of it that is open to the public should be free of charge.”

• “The concept of HemisFair was to bring the world to San Antonio. And we think that the redevelopment concept should be to bring the citizens back to downtown.”

Amen, again!

• “It needs to be well connected to the community at large. It needs to be 24/7, to get that vibrancy. . . Local, local, local. No chains.”

• “Reminding people of the history of what HemisFair was and is, but what was there before and allowing that to develop into the future. Some examples of this would be actually bringing the neighborhood street grid back in even just in a visual sense so people could see where the streets went, where the houses were.”

• “People should come to HemisFair to mingle with San Antonians, where residents and visitors merge.”

• “Not just a destination, but a place — a living place. A 24-hour place for residents and visitors alive. A place of actual use with points of pride — museums, residents, work-class art, eateries and performance spaces.”

I’m not sure everyone is aware but there are two museums currently located at HemisFair Park.

• “A place where 20-something-year-olds will want to hang out.”

• “Let’s get the water coming into the park. Maybe extend the boundaries of the park. Pull that River Walk in.”

…

So… your thoughts? What would you like to see happen at HemisFair Park? Comment below.

The next workshop scheduled for Feb. 24, although time and place have not been determined.